The Torn Veil
by Shad0w Valkyrie
Summary: With their leaders dead or defeated, the Hive are angry. But with no clear leader, they are out for blood. If they can't have this reality, no one will. Also includes Star Wars, a Halo fanfic, Evolve, Doctor Who, Black Ops III, Mortal Kombat, and many more.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

The Tower, Earth

As a _Quite Content Damsel_ model ship flew into the docking hangar, the blue aura of the transmat appeared on the balcony of the tower. Out of it came a green Exo with glowing purple eyes. Also from it came his small companion, the tiny machine called a ghost.

It was a typical day at the tower. The Exo turned in and collected some bounties to Xander, the frame who monitored all incoming bounties and HVTs. He checked over the bounties and notified the Vanguard and Dead Orbit factions.

Just as the Exo turned around to leave, Xander called to him. "One more thing, Guardian."

"What?"

"The Vanguard leaders request your prescence."

"I'm busted, aren't I?"

"Unknown."

"Great." The Exo mumbled as he walked over to the Cryptarch. He had Master Rahool decrypt the few engrams he had and dismantled them into resources. Then he made his way to the stairs to the Vanguard.

At the base of the stairs, he passed Eris Morn, the girl with three eyes (presumably). She had set up shop at the base of the stairs, with a glowing jar, though nobody knew why on both counts. When the Exo passed her, she stared in his direction.

"Heh, creepy as ever." The exo chuckled silently.

He got to the Vanguard table, and saluted the Vanguard leaders.

"Ikora." He said to the dark-skinned Warlock female. "Cayde." To the Exo Hunter. "Commander Zavala." To the Awoken Titan. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Something big is going down with the Fallen, Hive, and Cabal. Must be big if the Cabal risk fighting us here." Said Cayde.

"There is a massive concentration of all three species in the North American Continent." the commander said grimly as he pointed to the map.

"Maybe they just want a party." Joked the Exo

"I had a scouting fireteam down there." Said Ikora. "They managed to get us a real time view of the area, at the cost of their light." She turned on the holo-map. It showed, well, massive concentrations of all three species fighting what could only be called a war.

Zavala frowned. "We believe they are fighting over something of extreme importance in or under the ruins of the East coast. The Fallen and Cabal are tearing apart what used to be New York City and Washington DC, while the Hive seem to have turned the island of Manhattan into a fortress."

Just then a radio message came into the room. "Hey Zavala! Ya wanna see what a transmat beacon looks like in Central Park?"

"You went into a warzone without permission?!"

"Oh, yeah. Can I have permission?"

"Ah, he learned from the best." Sighed Cayde.

"Hold your ground, Guardian. We're sending a guardian to get you." A concerned Ikora.

The Exo stepped back one pace. "Sooo… guess I'm up."

"Take another guardian with you. You will need a full Fireteam if you get into a tight spot."

"Aye-aye, Commander. Ghost, beam me up!" The Exo transmated to his ship, and the Damsel shot out of the Tower's hangar bay.

But back in the Vanguard room, the leaders were having doubts. And Eris came into the room.

"He has no idea what he is facing. You must tell him what he is getting into." She said grimly.

"Would he have agreed if he did?" asked Cayde.

"Of course. He only took on two hive gods on his own and survived. Why do you insist on keeping the purpose of his mission from him?"

"If he screws up, Eris, you know what happens!" Cayde yelled back.

"Calm down, Cayde. We all do."

*Interruption. Unauthorized Edit Detected*

"Hello, little human readers! It's me, Discord. You know, the Lord of Chaos. You must be wondering: Why did I drag you from a strange plot development? Well, the writer was taking too long, and those Vanguard seemed so BORING and SLOW. Except for that Cayde fellow. He's good."

*What are you doing in my book?*

"Eh. Thought I'd improve it a bit. You know, jumpstart the plot a little. Introduce a few characters a little early. Cause a little Discord in places."

*Did I just hear a rim shot?*

"Heh. I'll still let you write. Besides, it's a good story. But there will be some phases where you have no control at all. Just let me take control of a few things. Like stealing away a bunch of characters from a few other franchises to fight the Hive. You shouldn't have made them do that, because now I got to do this to you."

*Well, I did want a Destiny crossover with something, but this is… unexpected to say the least.*

"Also, didn't you really want to say 'beam me up' with teleporters involved?"

*Shut up.*


	2. The Big, Rotten Apple

Chapter 1: The Big, Rotten Apple

Central Park, New York Ruins, Earth

The Exo (now with his headgear on) had traveled to Central Park, with another Exo: Killin ya 007. At the transmat zone they met up with Soulracketeer8, a hunter.

"Racketeer, what's the plan?" the Fireteam leader asked.

The hunter scratched the back of his headpiece. "Well, Swathing. From what my ghost says, there's a lot of Cabal ships around. There's a Fallen ketch hovering above us, an one in orbit as well. There's Hive swarming the place, and even readings of Vex temporal disruptions. This seemed to be the only area not occupied where I could set up shop."

"You don't have a plan, do you?"

"Not in the slightest. But isn't it better that way?"

Killin ya rolled his eyes under his helm.

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud crash on the other side of the park. The guardians saw an explosion in the direction of the noise.

"Shall we? Asked Swathing's ghost (if you haven't figured it out, the unnamed Exo is Swathing)."

"Let's shall."

They got out their sparrows, and rode off with a mix of colored trails behind them. They made it no further than 60 meters when a temporal incursion of Vex appeared in front of them. A large Hydra, leading 3 Minotaurs and swarm of Harpies (all Axis class) came out and opened fire at the unprepared guardians of the City.

They jumped from their rides and into cover from the barrage of energized projectiles, and watched their vehicles get blasted out of existence.

"I put a lot of marks into that thing." Killin growled, and loaded his Conspiracy Theory-D shotgun. "And now it's gone from my inventory. I'll scrap 'em all for that." He attempted to jump out at them.

Swathing grabbed him, keeping him from the enemies on the other side of their cover "Calm yo self, man. As you can see on your HUD, they all have yellow bars, indicating they are da rudest of rude dudes. It also says that they are level 42. I don't think we can take them on without a plan" The titan let up, allowing Swathing to continue. "Okay, now we need some heavy ammo. You guys have some syntheses, right?"

"Yup." Replied the hunter. "Gotta be prepared for anything."

The titan nodded as he got out a Thunderlord machine gun. Swathing equipped his rocket launcher, The Ash Factory. SoulRacketeer energized his Arc Edge sword.

They all accessed their inventories and each used a heavy ammo synthesis package. With their heavy ammo filled to the brim, they loaded up their big guns. Just in time too. An Axis Minotaur teleported behind their cover.

Swathing barely reacted in time. "Behind us!" The Minotaur fired its Torch Hammer at them, and Swathing's Ash Factory sent it's payload to wear down the shield. The rocket exploded in its face, destroying the shield and, well, face. "Open fire!" he shouted and the rest of the Fireteam shot up the headless machine. They narrowly avoided the Minotaur's original shots as it staggered from the impact of the rocket and the bullets pounding it. Then it charged blindly at the guardians as they ran to a better cover. Unable to stop itself, it tripped over a decayed park bench. To damaged to continue, its power and will gave out, shutting down.

"Everyone still alive in here?" SoulRacketeer called.

"I'm fine." replied Killin ya. "Not sure about the other guy, though."

Swathing inspected himself. "Got all my limbs. Wait, me or that Minotaur? Just kidding. Speaking of which, I think this is a new public event. The Hydra is going someplace."

"Might as well get revenge for my sparrow." He held up three fingers. Two. One.

They leaped out of cover. Swathing fired another rocket, which destroyed a few Harpies and a Minotaur's shield. The titan's Thunderlord tore up the rest of the Minotaur's body, leaving the rest to be tethered by SoulRacketeer's Shadowshot, denying the Hydra and remaining enemies an escape route. Soul tore through the rest of the Major Vex in the immediate area. Another Shadowshot tether was fired, further suppressing the now lonely Major Hydra. Swathing fired one more rocket into the Hydra's face, blinding it and exposing its mind core. Its propulsion system destabilized as well, leaving it stranded on the ground.

"Wait!" the Warlock's Ghost cried. "Don't damage it too much. Disconnect its power, I want to analyze it. This one's… Different than the others. Will you do the honors, Titan?"

"I thought no one would ever ask." He paced over to the nearly dead thing, and ripped out its power core.

"I thought I'd never see the day." the Hunter said in disbelief. "A Hydra that didn't explode. These things actually look real cool. Ya know, since all the ones I met tried to shoot me."

The Warlock killed the mood. "C'mon. Let's bag this thing and get to the crashed Skiff. We do have priorities, remember? I know you have another sparrow, Killin."

"I guess." The Titan moped as he brought out his spare. "I'll take point. You guys never had a sense of direction." He rode away with a smirk under his helmet.

As the other two followed suit, Racketeer asked Swathing to do something. "Remind me to punch him later, alright?"

"Fine with me, just make sure I'm not in the crossfire."

*Interruption. Unauthorized Edit Detected*

"Well, bravo, dear writer. Bravo! I didn't even have to fiddle with their choices to make them rowdy."

*Wait. You can do that?*

"Well of course I can. I'm Q's other side, remember? Toodles!"

*I'm talking to a book. What is wrong with me?*


	3. Student vs Dark Master

Chapter 2: Student vs. Dark Master

Personal Observation Room, Death Star

"You are all traitors to the Empire. You will be interrogated. Tortured. You will give me the names of your friends and allies." Lord Sidious paused. "And then you will die."

"Our deaths will only rally others." Senator Organa said with courage.

"Your very public and painful execution will serve as examples to the rest of the galaxy." The man in the chair snapped back.

General Kota twitched. He felt a familiar presence in the force. "There may be a rebellion yet."

Live holographic footage appeared of a man clad in white, with a hood covering his part of his face. Kota's last gift to Starkiller. He was coming to save them.

"Lord Vader," the Emperor commanded "Deal with the boy."

Vader removed his lightsaber from his belt, and went forward to fight his former apprentice. They met just inside the vault-like door to the Emperor's throne-like room. A crimson and blue lightsaber ignited and advanced to each other.

"I have trained you well, but you still have much to learn." Vader coldly told his former apprentice.

"You have nothing left to teach me." Galen responded, and dashed toward his former master. Their sabers crossed, and Starkiller forced his blade, but Vader let him push further than intended. He swung again, Vader sidestepped and grabbed him by the throat. Starkiller pulled his arms back, and let loose a blast of force energy, sending the dark lord flying back to the door he was defending. With Vader down Marek was given time to shock him with a long chain of force lightning, which lasted until he overtaxed his energy and had to stop for a few seconds.

Vader got up and channeled a blast of reddened force energy. "You have served me well, but your usefulness is at an end." He let it loose, but Starkiller had gotten behind him just in time. Vader was drained after that last attack, so Starkiller unleashed a flurry of lightsaber strikes energized with force lightning. This knocked Vader out of his daze, so he countered with one powerful strike, knocking his former apprentice to the ground. Vader gripped him with the force, and sent him into the wall. When Starkiller got up, Vader gripped him again. This time, Galen was able to break free and land several successful attacks from the air.

Vader decided this room was no longer favorable for combat, and force pushed his apprentice back, giving him time to go into the other room.

Starkiller followed, and found the dark lord on what was comparable to an island on a pond of harmful ray-shielded energy. From there they traded blows by sending unsecured objects at each other until Vader pulled down all but one of the walkways around the harmful energy. They slashed at each other with all that they had left, until Starkiller decided to end this.

Vader gripped something from the ceiling, and flung it at him. Starkiller caught it and returned it to sender. Vader sent it to his right, revealing Starkiller right in front of him, who repulsed, sending Vader down to the "island". Starkiller pulled many large cylinders from above and smashed the dark lord. He removed them and gave Vader a chance to stand up. His armor was battered, and his cape tattered, but still going. Starkiller hopped on the "island" as he was standing up. They struck, Vader faltered, and his apprentice slashed the armor off his head and leg. He sent him down to the ray-shield floor and then through the window. Vader went flying through a statue and to the floor below.

"Yes, kill him. He was weak anyway." Sidious tempted. "Kill him and take your rightful place at my side."

"No!" Kota yelled as he lashed out and pulled the Emperor's saber to his hand. He leapt at the former Chancellor but was shot down by his lightning. He continued the stream of purple, forcing Kota to contort and writhe in pain and misery.

"Help him!" Organa pleaded.

Starkiller was faced with a choice: finish Vader or save his friends. The fate of the galaxy hinged upon this very choice, without anyone's knowledge. This created two separate outcomes: The defeat of the Emperor, and the replacement of Vader. But something was wrong. The two outcomes created from those events were suddenly on a ship, presenting a Jedi Knight and a Sith Stalker. They ignited their lightsabers; one green, one black. An epic clash was about to begin.

*Interruption. Unauthorized Edit Detected*

"Isn't that you favorite Star Wars character?" Discord says to me.

*Oh, hell no. You don't get to play that card*


	4. Derelict

Chapter 3: Derelict

Deep Space, UNSC Reaper

"Sixteen months ago, an experimental UNSC dreadnaught-capitol ship disappeared from GPS and scanner range while on a mission to a planet in a satellite galaxy designated Sat-2985-5 or Shear. It was to oversee the progress of the colony on the planet, but after it left dry dock, it disappeared. Now that it has resurfaced, I want you to investigate the ship, and find out what happened. Take care of it, Spartan 6501. And use utmost discretion; this is still a classified project." That was Commander Lasky's message.

Now they were on a pelican, waiting for clearance from the Actual

"Reaper Actual, are we go for Pelican launch?" the pilot asked.

"Poltergeist 4, this is Reaper Actual. You are clear for launch. Sending two broadswords to escort. Vortexes 5 and 6, this is Reaper Actual, you are go for escort. Careful out there, Vortex 5. You still owe me a bet."

"Which I now realize was quite the mistake."

"Need I remind you that this is an official channel," the pelican pilot said with annoyance, "And not a place for fraternizing. You can still do that stuff, but on a different line."

"Whatever. You have a glorified shipping container to drive." Vortex 5 countered. She met no further opposition.

Vortex 6 scoffed at the people he had to work with. But he just ignored it and continued on the course to the dreadnaught.

"Hold up! I'm getting a signal broadcasted on all channels!" Reaper Actual declared as he patched it through to the ships in flight.

"zzzzzzzz can hear this, zzzz name is Cabot. By whatever means, do not try to board! Zzzzzzzzz have taken over the ship. I'm not sure how long we've been zzzzzzzzz in this ship. If you do board and encounter one of the zzzzzzzzz run, just run. You can't take on these things. They've zzzzzzzzz the entire crew. It's just the zzzz of us now. If you can, find us, and help us. ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaarrr. Oh, god! Hurry! We need-"

"Reaper Actual to Vortexes and Poltergeist. We've lost the transmission. The communications array on the ship looks to have been disabled. Whoever's in there, they can't talk anymore. If you can, try to find them. They could have valuable information."

"Copy that, Actual. We recognize secondary objective." The pilot for the Pelican responded. "Wait… Reaper Actual, are the ship's weapons operational?"

"It's possible. Why?"

"The AA guns are pointing at us. Evasive maneuvers! They're firing!" A wave of projectiles sought their way toward the three craft on the move. One struck the wing of Vortex 6.

"I'm hit! My wing is gone! Help!" His fighter spun out of control, and into more shots. "I can't take any more! Aaah-" Vortex 6 exploded, sending debris to the two remaining ships. One large piece of 6 struck Vortex 5's fuel storage.

"I'm hit. There's not much I can do leaking fuel like this. I can punch through the hull and make an entrance for the Pelican before I blow. Vortex 5 out." The Vortex slammed through the hull, and he Pelican followed through. It was a tight fit, but they made it. But they didn't stop. They crashed through another wall and into a small fighter bay.

"Reaper Actual to Reaper crew. Derelict ship has engaged and is firing upon our ship! This is NOT a drill. Repeat, NOT a drill. All hands to combat, immediately! But do not destroy the ship. The away team should be alive on that ship."

Meanwhile, in the downed pelican hold, two survivors, two Spartans got up from the wreckage, concussed.

"Well, there goes our ride." The blue one joked. "Cause that won't be fixed in an auto body shop."

"Any life signs on board this ship?" The Black and White one asked. "It's too freaking huge to search everywhere." He had a glowing, floating arm.

"Hold on, lemme check." He tapped the computer on his forearm. "21 humanoid life signatures. Two off in the other side of the ship, 18 on the bridge, and one… in our pelican." He equipped his spiker. The other one converted his arm to a scattershot. They found the sign in a crate on the pelican. "Wait, is it… sleeping?"

"Hello!" It popped up out of the crate, clad in blue. "I was looking for Freckles, have you seen him?"

"Kind of explains why he was sleeping in a crate full of ARs." The blue one reasoned. "But god dammit Caboose! You stowed away on a top secret mission."

He gasped. "Pop secret? Are we going to a movie? Yay!"

"You know the price of stowing away on a mission?" the arm cannoneer asked. "You have to help us now."

"Cool."

The midnight blue one was confused. "What? You're fine with undertaking a trip across hostile territory?"

"Who's Terry Torri? Is she a mean lady?"

"Eh. Fine. You can have Freckles. I was gonna use him for my arm." He tossed an AR at Caboose. It knocked him down.

"Yay! Freckles! Oh my gosh! You stole my precious freckles! Thief! Bad DMN! Bad!"

"Just follow us, Caboose." The midnight blue one said with little patience left.

"Why? Are we going on a treasure hunt?"

He rolled his eyes under his helmet. "Suuuuuuuurre."

"Is it golden?"

"Just shut up and follow us Caboose."

"Are we playing the silence game on the hike? Okay, go!" From there on, the blue Spartan and "DMN" communicated by sending messages with their wrist computers.

"Why is he here again?" the DMN asked.

"Fell asleep in a pile of crappy ARs while looking for Freckles."

"ARs aren't that bad."

"Suuuuurre. At least the Spikers puncture shields. Uhh... Remember the unidentified life forms I found on my scanner, one of them… is literally staring us in the face. Oh deer. With real deer."

"Wait what?" as the black and white Spartan reached for his knives, a massive beast emerged almost out of nowhere. It roared.

"Aw, you broke the quiet game!" Caboose complained.

"Hang On!" the blue one yelled as the DMN jumped onto the beast.

As DMN shouted while riding such a massive creature caboose was trying to ask the creature questions. "Are you Terry Torri? Are you a mean lady?"

"65!" the blue one shouted these numbers and DMN replied with

"Shut up I'm not 65!"

As DMN was being randomly teleported a sinister blue glow came out of a room and it sounded as if nails were being grinded on a chalk board second before DMN severed the dreaded head off. When DMN returned with the head in his hand and said. "One monster burger comin right up!" DMN shouted as he unloaded multiple scattershot rounds into the beast. As the gun ran dry with incineration rounds he reached into his arm to pull out his best creation (Technically his friend's creation)

"Looks like we need some back-up" DMN said.

"Why do we need back-up? Damn thing is dead."

"It kind of looks like it broke something important."

"Let me see… You let it teleport half its body into the slipspace drive!?"

"Maybe…"

"Potato!" chimed Caboose.

As DMN searched for an odd machine called the CTAIT65, he got out a blue 2DS. He found the thing he was looking for, and plugged the DS into it.

"That won't work, man. You see how the lights are dim? This ship's power source is dwindling."

"What if I reroute the power and try to use my arm as a power source?"

"Is it compatible power? You could overload the terminal and blow up the room, including this slipspace drive, which is already screwed up."

"Well Noah I wasn't done, I was going to rip the electronic veins from that Wraith and plug them into my arm creating an odd cyborg like terminal in which Scary and Gold-Heart can come through… or it would explode in our helmets… we wouldn't die from it though…"

"Wraith? There's a tank in here?" Noah asked, confused. "Or is it like the creature from that game with a hate/love relationship with the reviews?"

"Now I'm confused. I found an odd hunting manual with its species designation being Wraith. Also what the hell are you talking about?"

"There was a game back in 2015 that got mixed reviews. You either hated it or loved it. One of the creatures in it was called a wraith."

"Whatever let me do this or else we don't have any back-up. Marines don't do shit."

"Well at least let me check the bridge before you blow up the console. Not that it's an Xbox or anything."

As DMN ripped out a blue and a red vein out of the beast, Noah checked on the bridge to find 2 robots and 18 people on board, geared up and ready to kill something. "Jesus!" he yelled as he got behind cover.

One of the robots cheerfully introduced themselves "Hello! My name is EMET!" Then his face turned red. "I'LL RIP YOUR GUTS OUT AND WEAR THEM LIKE A SCARF!"

"Hey Noah, the test was a success! Scary and Gold-Heart are here to, holy shit!" As Scary and Gold-Heart were being shot at Gold-Heart Froze time as Scary dismantled all of the hunter's weapons except one, which was an organic gun. And the three guns that were attached to some of the other hunters.

Noah was in the corner, rocking up and down. "It's real. We're all screwed."

"By what?"

"I know what happens next."

An alarm started blaring throughout the ship. Then an alarm went off with a voice. " _Warning. Slipspace drive Alpha containment failing. Slipspace rupture imminent. Get your butts over there right now if you want to stop it_."

"Huh. EMET likes you. But in all the time we were marooned here, I never once heard the ship talk." Crow, one of the hunters said. "Gobi. Here." He called to his pet batray, an alien bird thingy. It landed on his forearm. "Go. Slipspace drive." He tapped a button on Gobi's night vision goggles. A live feed appeared on his HUD. "Go."

"Aw! It's a cute falcon thing!" Caboose squealed. "Oh my gosh, he's so cute!" He stared at Crow as Gobi took off. "I want one."

"We don't have time to go pet shopping!" The blue Spartan yelled. "Look, if that slipspace drive is destabilized, we will all get blown directly to another universe entirely! I have seen enough to know more than I should, so I know if that happens, a lot of people will die, including some of you. We need to get the hell out of here and fix that drive! Capisce?" He activated his jetpack, and pulled DMN and Caboose with him. "Lead the way, Gobi!"

Raaawk!

"God damn, I need a jetpack, I'm tired of being babysat." DMN muttered

30 seconds later, they found the drive, and the blue Spartan started giving orders. "Hunters, get that Wraith out of the drive. DMN, help me with this console. Caboose… Start pushing buttons. It's not like he could do anything worse."

"What the hell do you think you're doing? First off I give orders! Second you don't have to call me DMN, call me by my real name! And thirdly, Caboose don't push any buttons! Play with Freckles!"

"Okay! Freckles, push buttons!"

"Negative." the AR said. "I will shoot buttons." It began firing on the computer stuff.

"Well that was redundant. But seriously, can you help me with this thing?"

"Fine. But don't give me orders again." DMN ordered.

"Agreed. Jack, Crow, Abe, Maggie, Griffin. I need you to use your mobile arenas to force the Wraith out of the drive."

"How in the bloody hell did you know we had those?" Griffin asked.

"I know too much, remember?"

"I have an idea!" The Black Spartan shouted "What if I got Space and Time on board?"

"How? It already knows you can kill the clones easily, so it won't just give you another one."

"But I'm not the one who's going to piss it off… you and Caboose are."

"You serious?" Slim asked. "Thing's been pissed off for sixteen months."

"We just have to get it to follow LUNA, while we trap it in a corridor of the frigate. I saw people do something similar in a movie."

"Ha! That only works in fiction!" Griffin laughed. "Trust me, we tried that with a Behemoth or two back on Shear. Just rolled away. Tried to squish us."

"Well first off that was with a behemoth, second we are dealing with only one! So shut up Grif!"

"Why did you just call him Grif?"

"Because, he's acting like Grif!"

"Who the hell's Grif?" Hyde asked, and pointed his minigun at DMN. "Are you a spy? Cuz if you are I'll melt your ass."

"First off, fat-ass if you want to keep your face, I recommend you give me that gun right now, second Grif is one of my teammates and I miss beating the ever living shit out of him!"

"Why the hell would Hyde give you his gun? He melts faces, for a living. And he likes it! A LOT!"

"He just gives me bad memories to be around" as DMN removed his helmet a scar was revealed in the shape of an odd blade.

"Jesus." Remarked Abe. "And I thought mine was cool. Though I still haven't got Caira with it yet."

"Huh?" asked Caira.

"Nothing!"

"Sorry to interrupt your 'I'm-a-bigger-man-than-you' contest, but people gonna die if this thing goes, remember?"

"Well, only the hunters, we are wearing some of the strongest armor, Scary and Gold-Heart included."

"No, if this goes, we all get sucked into another universe and get caught up in some stuff that we have no business in. And people will die."

"Well I've been in another universe before, and in a black hole for ten years!"

"Only due to relativity. For you it was ten minutes. Besides, black holes are basically portals to other worlds that consume everything in their path, which includes light, in both meanings I'm thinking of."

"Well is now a good time to say I had another stow away on board hidden on the pelican?"

"We already know that you r-tard"

"Oh. I wanted to tell you that and something else. I am Michael J Caboose, and I hate black holes!"

"Shut up Caboose."

"Can we please get back to the actual goddamn issue here!? Will someone help me with this thing! No? Fine" He began shooting the ever-living crap out of the drive. It wasn't like anything worse could happen.

"Wait! Stop!" The hunters yelled. But it was too late. The drive imploded, and a big mass of slipspace energy devoured the ship, and the passengers with it. All that was left in the area was the _Reaper_ , battered by the derelict ship.

*Interruption. Unauthorized Edit Detected*

"Self-promotion? Shame on you, writer. Shame on you."

*Not my fault. My friend had much influence on this chapter.*


	5. Bow Ties are Cool

Chapter 4: Bow Ties are Cool

*Old New York, Earth*

"No, this isn't Cardiff! We need to refuel! You know, you aggravate me sometimes."

The TARDIS whirred in response.

"Oh, you don't say! But why here? Why an alien planet? What is so special about this place that we need to be here right now?"

It whirred again.

"Fixed points in all the universes are being altered, coming from this one? You didn't think to tell me that earlier?"

Whirr

"Whatever. Clara, you can come out now!"

"You talking to your phone box again, Doctor?"

As the two time travelers were taking a far deadlier threat came from above.

"Is that a spaceship?"

"Of course it is, dummy."

"I'm not a dummy. I'm clever. More clever than those raptors in that one movie."

"Soo where are we?"

"Well Oswin, let's find out. Allons-y!" They stepped over a ridge to see four kinds of armies clashing in what looked like post-apocalyptic New York City. "Looks like they were going for a scenic view for this shot. More importantly, I have no idea what these races are. I hate not knowing."

"Then let's find out." Clara replied.

Doctor snapped out of his I-hate-not-knowing-face. "Yeah, let's meet them"

As the duo walked into the ever growing battle the threat of death never crossed their minds. It was only a war, and the last of Gallifrey had seen his fair share of them. What scared him was the lack of knowledge about the combatants.

"Hello! I'm the Doctor and you are…" as the doctor asked a robotic creature

It just made a Whiiiirrreeeer sound and curled up into a ball. It glowed with a bright orange light.

"Fascinating" he reached out to touch the robotic creature, then jerked his hand back. "Ow! Hot!" He used the sonic on the robot, and it groaned as it came out of its hot aura, and powered down. "Clara! This thing is heavy! Help me get it back to the TARDIS."

Meanwhile on the dreadnaught, Caboose randomly yelled "Potato! I'm going to sleep."

As the DMN was awake along with everyone on board was awake the DMN checked where they were headed.

"HANG ON TO SOMETHING HUNTERS! SPARTANS ACTIVATE GRAV BOOTS!"

Back on the ground, Doctor saw a ship coming in from the atmosphere. "Oh dear. Clara. Run!"

"Why is there always an extraordinary amount of running in your adventures?"

"I don't know, and I never will! To the park!"

As the Doctor managed to get to central park yet another crashed ship was on top of many statues, barely supported by the tall statues of 10 sad-looking angels.

"Clara."

"What? Oh no."

"Don't blink. Blink and you're dead."

 _You sure about that?_ _A voice said from behind them. Don't try to turn around or I take you both._

"What do you want, Angel?"

 _We are stranded in this world. You, the Doctor, will free us._

"And let you wreak havoc back in my universe? No chance."

 _It is said that the Doctor cares about his companions. Would you like to test that?_

"Oi! Don't threaten to kill me! I'll break your face! Don't think I won't!"

Meanwhile in the atmosphere…

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" The dreadnaught slammed through a Cabal destroyer. A massive hole in the ship was produced. The Cabal crew members scrambled to shield the rest of the ship from being contaminated by Earth's air. Psions used their psychokinetic abilities to prevent such a thing from happening.

On the Cabal's bridge, the captain of the ship, Val Au'Tur'Aan was shouting orders in his native tongue to fix the problem. One of which could be loosely translated to: "An unidentified ship has entered the battlefield and has engaged! All available gunners, concentrate fire on that ship!" You could tell that he was angry.

The gunners bombarded the ship with hellfire and explosions. The UNSC dreadnaught lost its engines, shields, power, helm controls. The slipspace drives were already totaled so they weren't destroyed in the rain of projectiles. The ship crashed into the Empire State Building, turning the remains of the dreadnaught upside down.

"You don't have to do this you know…" the doctor reasoned. "You don't have to threaten my friend and damn yourself to my rage."

Well one thing still worked on the dreadnaught, the PA systems "You have arrived at your destination. Thank you for using the main capitol-dreadnaught. Now get the hell off me."

As the ship cashed into ten of the angels breaking them into pieces one trooper came out hovering above the last angel.

"Die engele!" LUNA shouted, and crashed down on the last angel, crushing its arms and legs.

"CANNONBALL! Watch out!" DMN landed on the rest of the angel, putting it out of its misery of disembodiment. The neutral-colored Spartan got up and commented "Well, that's one way to kill these mother-"

"Oi! Language!" Doctor yelled.

"Who are you anyway?" LUNA asked. "Wait, never mind. I already know the answer, Time Lord."

"Oh, so you've heard of me. Cool."

"I haven't just heard about you. I know a lot of stuff about you. Did you tell Clara about some of it?"

"So you know my name, too? Getting into stalker territory here."

"Did you tell her about K-9?"

"Oh, I miss that good dog. But how do you know about him, of all things?"

"Spoilers."

"You sound like-"

"River Song? Melody Pond? She has two names, remember?"

6501 got up. "So who is this guy?"

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a thousand years old, I'm from another universe, and I wear a bow tie. Bow ties are cool. What do you do?"

"I'm the DMN. I travel around the world picking, fights, killing aliens, starting and stopping wars. I have a badass Promethean arm."

"Never heard of the Prometheans so that doesn't mean much, and I have a phone box that can travel anywhere in time and space."

"So you are the Doctor." DMN said. "I can travel across time too. With Space and Time."

"What? What you just said doesn't even remotely make sense."

"Don't ask." LUNA said.

"Anyway, thanks for saving us. There are fixed points across every universe being altered and they all seem to be coming from this world"

"May I use your phone box to get Space and Time?"

"Oi! Don't touch her! She doesn't like strangers or people with guns."

"Ok Ill resolve one problem." the DMN threw his weapons to LUNA and Caboose with the finger lock engaged. While the DMN does this he pulled a holographic image of Space and Time.

"Oh! I thought you wanted to drain the TARDIS of its energy"

"Well according to my scans only 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% will be drained."

"So you think you're clever?"

"I'm clever and overly protective of my team. What's it to ya? I have a lot more weapons on me."

"How? There's no other place where they could be hidden. You're bluffing. Unless…" Doctor used the sonic on the Promethean arm.

Dozens of datacards started spewing out of DMN's shoulder.

"Stop this! Stop this now! Start catching them! Don't let them fly to far in the air."

Caboose was buried in a mound of cards. They then turned into a mound of ARs. "Freckles! Where are you?!"

"In your hand, you idiot."

"See what you did Doctor? My entire inventory is spewing out of my arm, and only 0.000000000000000000000000001% has been emptied! You idiot!"

"Oi! I am not an idiot!"

"Freckles!"

"Shut up Caboose! Use the reverse button! I don't care! Just put 'em back!"

The sonic whirred its copyrighted sound, and all the guns flew back into DMN's arm in datacard form. Not to soon the DMN was buried in a mound of cards which grew smaller within 1 minute or so…

A low hum was heard in the distance. Not much to be noticed, but something you could notice in the corner of your eye. No one paid any attention to it, for something else worth notice was on the way. Three vehicles that could be classified as speeder bikes came in much too close for comfort, especially the DMN. He was impaled by one of the bikes.

"Get off me!" he yelled to the rider. The rider, the Guardian stopped abruptly, and DMN flew right off the speeder and into a pile of dead Fallen. "This is just not our day. All right! Who the hell are you to think you can do that?!"

"We are the Guardians, and we are cocky as hell!" The one who had a cloak replied.

"Are you serious? You really had to say that?"

*Interruption, Unauthorized Edit Detected.*

"Well it's about time they met! I'll bring the popcorn!"

*No popcorn for me?*


	6. Mercenaries of the 2070s

Chapter 5: Mercenaries of the 2070s

*Western China*

"What do you want? I'm working."

"Spectre, there's a large quantity of armed guards beyond that door. I advise that you take a different approach."

"Copy that, Outrider. Reaper, is there a vent nearby in those floor plans of yours?"

"Air vent to floor grate in target room located at north wall, 3 meters to your right. Grate has been sealed, but has a structural weakness. Small explosive charge recommended to break through to objective."

"Acknowledged, Reaper. Will a semtex work?"

"Chances of success with a semtex explosive are calculated to be 96.75%"

"Yeah, so it should work."

"Affirmative."

Spectre entered the vent. "I feel lucky. A robot told me something could work." No one could tell if that was sarcastic, but they assumed so. "Breaching in 3. 2. 1. Semtex planted. Nomad, through the window, now!"

The floor collapsed, with a figure in black with dual blades on his arm jumping out of the rubble to kill 3 of the surprised guards in the room with the blades. Nomad jumped through the window and fired on the remaining guards. Seven bodies fell to the floor.

"This is Spectre. We are clear, and ready to download the data. Outrider, keep the curious away from this section."

"Acknowledged, overwatch perimeter established"

"Hey, wasn't Section that guy who took down Raul Menendez?"

"Get off the line, Ruin."

"Fine, fine. I'll just stand guard by tall, dark, and metal over here. By the way, are you done yet with those files?"

"Even with augmentations, these files are going to take a few dozen seconds to download. Lots of data here. Nomad, cover me." Spectre ordered.

Nomad equipped his H.I.V.E. weapon and fired it at the door and the window. No one would get in without the nano-bots tearing them to shreds.

"Bad news." Spectre said. "This is only half of the data we were looking for. The other half is in a maximum security bunker in Cairo, Egypt." An alarm started blaring. "And they have a monitor on their computers that triggers alarms."

"Let's get the hell out of here, then!" Ruin slammed through a door, firing at the guards behind it.

"Prophet! Status on ex-fil!" Outrider asked.

"The mothership is inbound, but you have to survive and wait for get here first." Prophet stood, firing his Tempest at the multitudes of robots trying to breach the building where Spectre, Nomad, and the others were. Outrider helped him take on the robots, but from above. Ruin had a rocket launcher on hand, and decided to help out Prophet with clearing out the autonomous war machines.

Reaper joined in on it too. "Worthless. Consumer models. Annihilate!" His arm transformed into his renowned (and feared) weapon, the Scythe. They all mowed down the robots with ease after that.

Prophet looked up. "The dropship is here. Let's go home." They evacuated onto the ship, and got up to Outrider's position. She jumped into the craft, and it flew away. Anti-air fire pursued, to no avail. "Seraph, take us to our next destination. Marking it on the mothership's GPS."

Seraph checked the map. "Hmm. This is disturbing. How did the 54 Immortals get a base operational in northern Russia without my knowledge? But it doesn't make sense why they would choose the Siberian area. Too cold for their tastes." She was still linked to the 54i, making her wary about them attacking their bases. It also made the others in the group wary of her. "ETA to base: 10 minutes. Get some rest; I don't know what's there."

Then a loud boom was heard by the occupants of the ship. They looked out the window to see the base blown to hell. Reaper gave out confirmation of what just happened. "Orbital strike successful. Evidence and enemy resources destroyed." The others couldn't tell (maybe Prophet could), but in his mind, he smiled at the destruction.

*10 minutes later*

"Outrider here. Boots on the ground. Going to scout out the area." She had equipped the arctic getup for the environment, which helped conceal her since she was wearing all white. She made her way to a ridge overlooking the 54i base. "We have a problem. The base is covered with motion-sensing defenses. There's no chance in hell that we can go in quiet, even for Spectre."

Ruin made a suggestion. "Then I suggest we go in loud and overwhelm them."

Battery loaded up her War Machine. "When do we start? My trigger finger is itchy."

"Up from your nap already?" Ruin joked.

"I don't nap. Ever. Let's kill things."

Soon multiple hostile were annihilated by the mercenaries' weapons and skills. They hadn't even disconnected from the zipline that reached the base. When Ruin reached the end of the line, he used his gravity spikes to burst through the wall.

"Made it to the server room immediately. Lucky me."

Prophet connected to the servers to act as a conduit to bring the information to the dropship. "Outrider, since you're up there, keep overwatch."

"Aye-aye." She equipped a Locus sniper rifle and proceeded to eliminate all who approached the building.

Prophet looked at the rest of the data in awe. "Oh, my stars. It's beautiful." All other noise was drowned out to his ears, and he gazed upon the plans. "Our evolution… is here. There's a bunker on the other side of the base. What we are looking for should be there."

"That may be difficult." Outrider reported. "Multiple enemy P.A.W.S. are inbound."

"They should have brought more." Reaper commented. "Destroy them all."

*Interruption. Unauthorized-*

"Oh, shut up about me being unauthorized. I'm me! Would you care to explain what these fine fellows are from?"

*sigh. Black Ops 3. You happy?*

"Usually."


	7. Get Over Here!

Chapter 6: Get Over Here!

*Dead Forest, Earthrealm*

A cold chill passed the already-frozen dead forests. The Lin-Kuei Grandmaster stood, with ice formations around him. A distance away, trees burned, with a warrior clad in yellow in the epicenter. He called, "Sub-Zero!"

"Will there ever be peace between us, Scorpion?"

"Not in this or any other universe!"

"FIGHT!"

They charged into each other. Scorpion issued the first srike, with a knee to the gut of his 23-year adversary. Sub-Zero struck back with a punch from the right, and then the left. Scorpion caught the second one and tried to dislocate his arm. Sub-Zero responded with several punches to his side and two kicks. Scorpion again caught his limb, (in this case the right leg) and again tried the dislocation method. The ice warrior followed up with three kicks to the chest, the last of which sent the demon flying back a few feet. He allowed him to get up, and followed through with four punches to the chest and a freeze blast. The ice shattered around Scorpion as he was thrown back further, and through a burned tree stump. The cold one leapt at his age-old combatant, only to be met with a flaming uppercut. To counter, he sent a charged ice blast. The demon dodged, and sent him back further. Sub-zero grabbed a tree branch and froze it, slamming it into his face. On the second contact, it shattered. To regain the momentum, Scorpion performed a flaming backflip-kick. The grandmaster soared into the air, but landed steadily on his feet. He slid with the ice at Scorpion, but he had teleported in fire, flanking him. When coming out of the fiery transport, he had gained speed, which he used to deliver a kick to his opponent's side, breaking a couple ribs. He followed up with a swift kick to the right knee, dislocating the knee bone. With the other leg he had, Sub-zero spun around and planted his left foot in his head. The ice ninja grabbed a tree branch and swung twice, each time his feet scored a hit on his head. When he came down, a short sword of ice formed in his hand. He moved in to stab, but the revenant grabbed his forearm and sent his knee into the blade-wielder's gut. They then traded blows until Scorpion whirled around and sent his boot into his kombatant's chin. Sub-zero fell back, as his adversary leaped into the air. He then pulled out his two signature weapons: Rope Dart #1 and Rope Dart #2. They traveled into the Lin-Kuei's chest, ad Scorpion sent him in an arc in the air over him, into the snow. Sub-zero landed on the ground back shoulders-first, and the impact knocked off his half-mask. He got up weakly as the Rope Darts snaked back into the folds of Scorpion's gear.

"FINISH HIM!"

One Rope Dart streaked through the air, seeking Sub-zero's head. In a way, he was glad that this was over. This was kind of getting old. He closed his eyes, ready for the end.

The weapon landed. But there was no skull pierced. Sub-zero was not dead, but they weren't at the dead forest anymore. They were in Earthrealm, but it wasn't' the same. But it appeared that they weren't alone in their displacement. Nightwolf and Jax were present. Also there was Cyrax, Sektor, and Cyber Smoke: the three parts of the Triborg entity. In front of them was a very complicated device that was emanating a dying glow.

"Location unknown. Seek information." Sektor ordered. "Proposing temporary truce to others."

"I ally with no one, especially not the Lin-Kuei!" Scorpion yelled, teleporting away in fire. He found himself slamming his boot into the head of Smoke. With him out of the way, he engaged the other two cyborgs.

"Eliminate revenant threat." Sektor threw a nearby wrench into Scorpion's head, stunning him. Cyrax grabbed him, allowing his comrade to throw several punches into his gut. Scorpion replied by slamming their heads together and sending a flurry of punches to the cyber warriors on his left and his right. Cyrax then caught him in a green binary net of energy. He launched a saw blade into him, pinning the demon to the ground until it rolled away. Scorpion uppercutted the yellow cyborg with fire, sending him over to a wall. The red cyborg fired a rocket at the demon while he was distracted. But the revenant caught the projectile and returned it to sender.

"Man beats machine any day. And the machine wastes my time!"

"You are not a man, not anymore." Nightwolf told Scorpion without a tremble in his voice. "You are a demon that I do not fear."

"You will. Get over here!" Nightwolf caught the dart midair, and pulled back, but Scorpion was sent elsewhere. He popped back up in another room. It seemed that he had used a flaming teleport without thinking where he wanted to go. He turned around to see:

CHIK-CHAK. The barrel of an Argus shotgun stared him in the face. "Who the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing here?"

"I am Scorpion, and I am not entirely sure, but you will feel my sting!"

"Not with this in your face, I won't." BLAM! She lowered the Argus, to find no body, but flames and smoke. "I didn't load this with incendiaries. How the hell did that happen?"

"It didn't." He slammed a pipe into her head, then took her weapon and hit her face with the butt of the gun. She fell to the ground, unconscious. "Be glad it wasn't a bigger sting."

"This is Outrider. Comms check." she advised.

Ruin was the first to report in. "Gotta keep up. Check."

"This is Spectre. Check."

"Communications system check acknowledged." Reaper… well… acknowledged.

Prophet came in. "Check. Also, when you can, you should see something I found."

"This is Nomad. Me and Seraph have deactivated the P.A.W.S. If we can, we should take them to the mothership for reprogramming."

Outrider awaited the response of Battery, but it did not come. "Battery, do you copy? Battery! Reaper. Ruin. Find out what happened to Battery, ASAP!"

It was at that moment that Scorpion realized: he had screwed up. He hid the military personnel he had knocked out behind cover, and vanished. Just as he did, the duo busted through, eyes peeled.

"Multiple heat signatures detected. One is the average body temperature of a human. Another exceeds 200 degrees Celsius, thus is not a human."

Fire appeared in front of them, revealing a golden-clad warrior. "So, you say I am not human? I was, but neither are you, cyborg!"

"Prophet, we found what came out of your science experiment. He looks pissed, though."

"I am not angry, I am vengeance! And you will take me to this so called 'prophet', whether you want to or not!"

"Nobody gives me orders except my CO, and I haven't worked for him in a long time!" He pulled out a gravity spike, arming himself for a fight. "You may scare some people with those swords of yours, but a melee expert is easy to take down when you are trained well enough with this thing. Now are you gonna come peacefully, or am I going to have to ask nicely?" The gravity spike primed, ready to detonate on something.

"You don't scare me! Get over here!" The rope dart flung forward, catching Ruin's cybernetic legs and propelling him to Scorpion. Ruin was prepared, and activated the spike on impact. Another fight had begun again, which caught the attention of a certain war deity, Ares.

*Int-*

"Mortal Kombat! DODODODODODODODODODODODO! Mortal Kombat!"

*Rly, bruh?*


	8. The Wandering Soul

Chapter 7: The Wandering Soul

*Mordor*

"This Warchief has been a pain in my side for a while." He complained. "Now that we have one of his bodyguards, he will die easily after he gives us what he knows."

" _Talion, we will destroy this Uruk with delusions of grandeur, but we will have to draw him out first._ "

"Oh, wraith. How long have we been at this? I know that part by now, but how do we get him out?"

" _His bodyguard 'willingly' provided the information that this Warchief has a favorite Uruk. Cut him up, and his master will surely come to take revenge._ "

Talion sneaked his way into the eastern stronghold, utilizing the training he had received as a ranger. Dead silence was his companion throughout his trek, masked by the whispers of hundreds of souls lost in the wind. Come to think of it, it might now be thousands, given how many Uruks he and Cerebrimbor had killed. Then again, these orcs might not even have souls.

Over, above and around he sneaked, searching for his target. He found him, with an escort of two archer Uruks. The Wraith drew his bow, Azkir, and let loose four elf-shot arrows in rapid succession. Two struck the archers' heads, and the other two pinned the last Uruk's feet to the floor upon which he stood. He panicked, yelling out in pain, but not loud or long enough for it to attract any attention before Talion gave him five brutal knife wounds.

Later, a patrol found the body. "There's been a murder! Inform the Warchief!"

The Warchief entered with his two bodyguard captains. "Who dares to kill my favorite? 'E was mine! Whoever killed 'im is going to feel my blade! Come out, unless yar a coward!"

Talion leapt down from his perch, accepting the challenge.

"The Ranger? The bloody Ranger killed my favorite? I'll gut you like a Caragor! There's a handsome reward in it anyone who brings 'im to me!" A this request, every Uruk in the area surrounded Talion, hoping for a reward.

"Is this everyone?" The Ranger asked. Resounding grunts of confirmation answered him. "Good. I need plenty to witness this."

"YAAAAARRRR!" One lone Uruk dared to attack first, confident in his skills. Of course, he hadn't heard the rumors about the Ranger. If he had, he might not be missing his head. Might. Shocked but angered, the other orcs attacked Talion in full force, attempting to overwhelm him. They hacked and slashed, to no avail. With his Ranger training, Talion caught and countered nearly every attack that came to him. When more than one Uruk attacked at a time, the Wraith took on one himself. Soon there was black blood, the blood of orcs, coating the stronghold. But there was no end in sight to the forces coming to the stronghold. Talion had to rethink his plan, lest he eventually be overwhelmed. He needed reinforcements on his side, and he knew exactly how to get them.

His left hand clenched the face of a nearby berserker. "Forsake the shadow!" A glowing blue brand in the shape of a human hand burned into the skull of the Uruk. The branded Uruk began to lash out at his former comrades. Since it was a berserker, it was quite effective at killing others. Better than the average Uruk, anyway. Satisfied with the quality of this troop, he proceeded to brand a couple more berserker, hunter, and shield-bearing Uruks, then a couple dozen more. With this force of Uruks, Talion fought his way to the Warchief and his bodyguard captains.

"Tark!" One of the captains, a beast-master, called out Talion to combat. "Well, lookie here! I got a ranger for me to gut! Don't bother running; I will find you, wherever you run!"

Talion didn't need to deal with him himself, so he activated the other captain he branded, the one that spilled the beans about the Warchief's favorite. The captain clenched his face, receiving his orders, and engaged the beast-master. This gave Talion free reign to attack the Warchief.

"Do you even fight, or do you have others do it for you? Because that is what it seems to be, Warchief. Or perhaps I am speaking to a coward?" Talion taunted.

"I'll 'av your tongue, murderer! You kill my favorite, then you accuse me of being a coward? Be mindful of your next words; they will be your last!" The massive Uruk swung his large polearm, which was on fire, making it even more damaging if the bladed part hit something. Talion was lucky. He didn't get the blade, but the pole, which slammed into his chest with enough force to clothesline him. Talion landed on a wooden workbench, breaking it.

Disoriented by the blow, Talion barely managed to roll away from the flaming blade that came down hard into the wooden boards covering the ground. With the weapon stuck, Talion was able to unleash a flurry of sword strikes upon the Warchief after stunning him with one wraith-empowered punch. The final hit of the flurry knocked him down hard enough that his blade came loose from the ground. Talion struck the Uruk with his dagger as he did to most of whom he let fall down without dying. The Warchief cried out in pain, angry that a human could do this kind of damage to him.

Next, Talion tried an execution attack on the Uruk. It was aimed it his head, but the big guy managed to catch it without getting cut. In response, Talion delivered a swift knee in his side. The cycle of flurries and stabs continued until the Warchief was stunned one last time. Then Talion slid his sword down his back, cutting open his spine. The Uruk fell to his knees, at the mercy of the Ranger.

"Be mindful of your next words Uruk. They will be your last."

"Never will I beg for my life like a coward. Kill me and be done with it. I die honorab-" He received a massive stab in the back of his neck. It went completely through him, then exited from whence it came. Then his head went flying. The Warchief was dead, with no chance of returning.

"Honor, I think not. You were an Uruk." He walked over to the unbranded bodyguard, who had been taken down by the branded one.

"No! Please! Don't kill me! I'll t-tell you anything! I'll do anything!" He begged for his life.

Talion's hand gripped his skull. "Yes. You will." What the Captain knew flowed into their head. All information was looked over by the Wraith, but something caught its eye.

" _What is this is I see? Something a petty Uruk should not know, for sure._ "

"What do you see, Wraith? What does this Captain know?"

" _Something that he shouldn't. In a cave to the northwest lies something of much interest. That Uruk should be the new Warchief. It would not bode well if the source of our knowledge is destroyed, and you know the protection they receive._ "

"The logic you preach is sound. He may be a bigger target, but will be a scarier one. Let us go to this interest, then. But before that, we have some orcs to brand."

"NO! PLEASE! NOOO. . . Praise the bright master."

*Interruption-*

"That man's story is so sad. Brings a tear to my eye."

*Really?*

"Not!"

*That's just cold man. Well, so was the previous chapter.*


	9. Arkham Exalt

Chapter 8: Arkham Exalt

Batman had removed his mask, for the very last time. Gotham was free of its most wanted, and everyone knew who he was. He had gone to his house, and blew it up. Crispy were he and Alfred, but fate (a.k.a. a certain omnipotent fanboy (and a certain writer)) had different plans for him.

He awoke in darkness. He called out, "What happened, Alfred? Did it not go off?" No response. "Alfred?" Again, no response. "Where am I?" The world's greatest detective decided to investigate. He found a door, and that his mask was back on. What was off about the door was that it was the only thing around, other than him. It was as if he was walking on nothing. He opened the door to find where it went.

What happened next could not be expected by him at all. When he opened the door, he was in the outside world once again. He was on a rooftop in a city at night, but it was not his Gotham. He knew he was on earth, but he didn't know where.

This didn't surprise him. Neither did the explosions and gunfire on the streets below him. This city was in chaos, and needed a savior. He was Gotham's no more, but this city needed his help. The bat soared again to save the people.

There was a man on a ledge, above a police officer. It appeared as though he intended to step on her hands, which would cause her to fall off the bridge. Batman could not afford to have someone die on his watch. Not tonight. Not again. He'd had too much of that already.

Since it was over the ledge, Batman had the opportunity to grapple a point on the bridge. He accelerated at terrifying speeds (to a criminal) to the perpetrator, giving himself enough speed for a grapnel accelerator takedown.

The moment he reached the ledge, he leapt up, catching the rather tall man with his arm. He then slammed his head down in the same flawless motion. The impact knocked the tall man in the suit unconscious immediately. He never knew what hit him.

He pulled up the officer that had been in danger. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, thanks to you. How did you do that? Where did you come from?"

"That doesn't matter. You should be safe now. Where is the nearest station?"

"To the north, a few blocks away. But it's been overrun by a lot masked men, and they are packing heat."

"I'll handle them."

"You can't be serious. They have rocket launchers! They blew up any car that even came near the building."

"I'm always serious. Get somewhere safe, and lock the door. I'll contact you on your radio when they have been dealt with."

"Okay. Don't get yourself killed, alright?"

He grappled over to the police station to liberate it from the threats that occupied it. They would not harm anyone else in this city again. Not if he had any say about it. He made his entrance through a vent, appearing directly above them. 27 hostiles in the building, all armed with unidentifiable weaponry. They weren't all in the same room, so he could isolate them. Then he noticed the aircraft above the skylights.

It hovered over the glass, and seven troopers in armor dropped through. He could hear some chatter over their comms:

"Be advised. There are now 28 signatures in the building." Their commander, probably.

"I doubt it'll be much of a problem. Probably a stray alien drone." This came from one of the troopers from the craft, who was equipped with several grenades and some sort of device. "Their coding is advanced, but not perfect."

Aliens. This was definitely not his world. Was there even a Gotham? He would listen in while he set some things into position.

"Why do you think EXALT tried to take over this police station?" The one with the grenades asked. At least he had a name for the terrorists.

"Do we really understand EXALT's motivation?" The medic asked.

"I do. Power." The one with augmentations said. "They want money and power, and they don't care who has to die to get it. If they have to sell out the human race, so be it. They forsake humanity when they started setting up shop all over the world. I hope they burn in whatever hell awaits them."

"We have to burn them first, though. You know the drill. If it's not us or a civilian, blow 'em to bits." The officer commanded. "If it's new, capture it."

"Got it, boss." The sniper acknowledged as she flew up to the celling with some sort of jetpack.

 _SLAM, CRACK, THUD_ Gunfire was heard, then two more blunt impacts. Then it was silent.

"What the hell was that?" The soldier with some sort of alloy cannon queried.

"Strike-One, be advised. It looks lie signature 28 is hostile to EXALT. However, we still read their life signs. Recommend extreme caution. We don't know what you're up against."

"I copy, Central. Squad, move in!"

Three of them burst into a room full of EXALT agents. "Let 'em have it!" The one with the minigun yelled, firing bursts of energy throughout the room. Immediately, two agents were mowed down and the lead EXALT spewed coffee out of his mouth. He leapt over a desk and turned it over for cover. The other two beside him were destroyed by the shotgunner and the grenadier. Before he could call for backup, the sniper managed to shoot through the wall and into his leg. He crawled over and shot the fire extinguisher to cover himself while he called for backup.

"We're under attack! Everyone, on me!" was what Batman was able to translate in his head. After that cry, the soldiers were able to find him… and execute him. But not before all the other conscious ones were able to find his position and surround the soldiers.

Then, the number of faint life signs went from three to four, to five, six, seven out of the 23 left.

"Strike-One, what is happening? They're dropping like flies."

"We'll let you know as soon as we do. I'm pretty sure that will be soon. Comms check." The one who looked like a medic ordered.

"MEC Trooper check." The one in power armor responded.

"Grenadier check."

"Assault check."

"Heavy check."

But from the last one, there was no response. "Everyone, clear out the EXALT. I'm going to check on our sniper."

"Got it, boss. You know the drill, all. Blow 'em all to hell." Pulses of energy soared out of their weapons to the terrorist occupants in the station.

They knew exactly what they were fighting. The medic on the other hand, was uncertain of this new threat. Uncertainty leads to nervousness. Nervousness leads to fear. It had been so long since he was scared of any hostile threat. If he died on the battlefield, he would die for a cause, but this one was… different.

"Central, this is Psi-3. Psi-4 is down." He broadcasted to his command. "She's not dead, so I can revive her. Hold on…" He turned his light plasma rifle. Three bursts of energy flew out into the dark, only to hit nothing. "Must have been nothing." He turned around to be terrified.

A palm to disarm, a kick in the kneecap, and an elbow to the shoulder brought him down to one knee. Since he wasn't usually in close-quarters engagements, because that was usually the Assault's job, he wasn't very experienced with a knife. Even if he was, it wouldn't have helped him much. He was facing the goddamn Batman.

*Int-*

"Nananananananananananana"

*No*


End file.
